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Ketsu-Kobu
In the San Roque sector of Darkness Falls, the name Ketsu-Kobu is never spoken above a whisper, if at all. The young Japanese men and women of San Roque's Neo-Tokyo scoff and call him a myth and a boogeyman. The older and wiser generations know better. Background Seven year old Hitochi Nagaso's entire life was shattered when the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki. All his friends, every single member of his family, his neighbors; all gone. That Nagaso himself even survived was a miracle but he didn't see it that way. From the moment he was rescued and told what had happened, a deep hatred for America took root in his heart and filled his blood with ink. Nagaso was sent to an orphanage, but it soon became apparent that the boy would refuse to forget, refuse to forgive. He was quiet and angry, not making any friends nor attempting to. His sole pastime when not at his lessons was to stand in a corner, watching the other children play, and hating them for it. By sheer happenstance fate threw him a curve ball when he was ten years old, a visiting couple of Paradigm City came to the orphanage to select a child. Though James and Tina Hurusami were both Japanese, they were born and raised in America. They took a strange liking to the dark boy in the corner, and Nagaso was moved to San Roque, Darkness Falls, Paradigm City. He had been selected for two reasons: Tina's heart broke for him when she learned his story and she wanted to love him and for James it was much more practical. He was a child psychologist studying the effects of tragedy of war on children and Nagaso would be the perfect observational candidate. Much as he had done in Japan, Nagaso took no friends and turned his nose up at everything American. He wouldn't eat the food, he wouldn't accept the customs, and getting him to learn English was a task and a half. He was picked on at school once. But only once, when the unfortunate and unwise bully of the playground chose the skinny, 'spooky' Japanese kid as his target and found himself, instead, on the receiving end of fury that had been under Nagaso's skin for six years. Nagaso's parents almost went bankrupt paying the hospital bills. When he was 12, Nagaso was forced to march along on a school field trip to the library, and there--much to his astonishment--he found a book about Japanese folklore, magic, and yokai. That same night at dinner when he shared his borrowed find with his adoptive parents, they were stunned and pleased with the excited animation he showed, pointing to pictures and turning pages. He even smiled. Encouraged by this sudden connection, James Hurusami went to every book store he could find and purchased books on the subject. Nagaso devoured them, loved them, and studied them. He became cheerful, talkative, and began referring to his adoptive parents as mum and dad. The Hurusamis were elated. But what they didn't know was that in the wee hours, when the house was cold and dark, Nagaso wasn't just reading. He was practicing. By the time he graduated high school, Hitochi Nagaso-Hurusami seemed in all respect a well-adjusted and normal young man. Following his graduation he attended Millennium City University, gaining his PH.D in Folklore and Japanese Studies. He took a break from his studies when James Hurusami died unexpectedly from a heart attack, but resumed them until he earned his degrees, at which point he began teaching at Neo-Tokyo's college of the arts. This is when trouble began. Some of his neighbors reported strange sounds, thumps, and cries coming from his house at it frightened them. Old people seemed alarmed by him, animals shied away. When American members of the community began mysteriously sickening and dying or having terrifying supernatural visitations, one relic of a man said to his fellow: "It's that man with the soul of the yokai." And true it was. Secured in his power and releasing all of his rage, Nagaso gave it his all to run the Caucasian population of Neo-Tokyo out. Soon, the deaths stopped being so mysterious and baffling and became knows, at least to the senior Japanese of Neo-Tokyo, that Hitochi was responsible owning to the appearance of his calling card at each scene of death: a bloody hand print. Hitochi Nagaso firmly established himself with this symbol, and the legend of Ketsu-Kobu "Bloody Hand" rose. At one point Ketsu-Kobu's fame and activities were so great that he did, indeed, succeed in forcing every single Caucasian resident out of Neo-Tokyo. Parasol, quite impressed with the man and the legend, was soon to come calling. Appearance and Personality When not in costume, Hitochi Nagaso is an 81 year old Japanese man whom is fit and spry enough to pass for a man in his early sixties. He tends to dress in simple polo shirts and slacks. Though he tries to come across as a relatively pleasant person to speak to, the hate in his eyes and the thinly veiled contempt he holds for all non-Asians is apparent. Ketsu-Kobu is a racist in the extreme. To him, The Japanese people, Japanese culture, and Japanese tradition are at the top of the mountain. All other Asian nationalities are just pretenders. The Chinese are dishonest thieves, the Koreans are only good for servants, and the Cambodians are wild animals. Other nationalities are generally lumped into the same category: brutal and hostile animals with no redeeming values whatsoever. He is only truly respectful to pure, full-blooded Native Japanese but even then it's a grudging respect. As the Overlord of San Roque, Ketsu-Kobu keeps a tight watch and even tighter grip over the crime in his area. Criminals are expected to adhere to rigid standards and decorum, including showing respect to Japanese elders and never taking a Japanese life flippantly. Those criminals that fail to meet his expectations are given one warning, the appearance of the bloody hand print. If they ignore the warning, they die. It's that simple. (The author should like to note that the views and expressions of this particularly repugnant villain are his alone, they are not shared by the author.) Skills & Talents Ketsu-Koba is a virtual encyclopedia of Japanese history, folklore, culture, and traditions. Though he speaks English fluently he rarely does, using Japanese when in the company of others. If they're smart enough to understand, good. If they're smart enough to understand and respond, good. If the person or persons he speaks to can't understand him well, then, after all. Only the Japanese are intelligent. Powers Ketsu-Kobu is in full possession of the entire arsenal that Japanese black magicians are thought of to have. He can summon and control spirits, binding them into objects as large as a house or as small as a dime. He is able to summon 'lesser' yokai and infuse them into ordinary household objects: umbrellas that hop about and lick with long tongues, paper lanterns that grow horrible faces and blow fire, and so on. Greater yokai, like kitsune, are beyond his power to control but he certainly knows how to injure and banish them. He can send his spirit servants out to collect information, haunt buildings to terrify the occupants, and ravage his enemies. Most often his spirit servants are invisible but when he does allow them to be seen in order to inflict even more fear they usually appear as black foxes, monstrous toads, or visages of tattered and bloody women that fit the description of onryu. He knows spells and rituals that allow him to shape-shift, conjure illusions that affect all fie senses, and his most horrible power: taking possession of other and committing horrible atrocities while riding their bodies. Quote "Anata ga shindara, watashi wa anata o bin no naka ni fūin shi, anata o eien no tame ni kurushimemasu."